


Stars and Midnight Blue

by dbz2010



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28523163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dbz2010/pseuds/dbz2010
Summary: Flora tries to surprise Jaal with a Christmas present but ends up teaching him what exactly the meaning of the holiday is exactly.
Relationships: Jaal Ama Darav/Ryder
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: MEFFW Secret Santa Exchange 2020





	Stars and Midnight Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilenyFade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenyFade/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy this, SilenyFade <3

Title: Stars and Midnight Blue  
Author: dbz2010  
Beta: N/A  
Series: mass effect andromeda  
Character(s): F!Ryder, Jaal Ama Darav  
Genre: sci-fi  
Rating: PG-13  
Word Count: 1391

Fanfic summary: Flora tries to surprise Jaal with a Christmas present but ends up teaching him what exactly the meaning of the holiday is exactly.  
\-----------  
“Hey, Jaal, can you come here for a moment?”

The purple-hued Angaran looked up from the sniper that he was cleaning to see where Flora was at. Not really seeing her exact location, he set it down and walked out of his room to see that the entire first floor of the Tempest had been turned into…well, he wasn’t exactly sure what to describe it. There was green stuff all over the railings of the stairs leading up to the meeting room and he could spy a tree near the table in the meeting room, too. And all around there was round glass objects that seemed to be floating in mid-air.

“What the…” he started to say before something tangled was thrusted in his hands. “Can you give this to Cora for me? She wanted to set up the lights down in engineering before it got too late.”

Puzzled, he did as he was told and delivered the lights as he was told. He didn’t know what these lights were but he didn’t want to ask. It must be a Human thing, he pondered to himself.  
\--------  
A few days later, he walked out to more decorations were put up around the ship. It seemed like they had spread out around various corners much to the dismay of the Drack and Peebee. “I don’t understand why we have out this nonsense,” the old Krogan growled as he flicked a green limb from the corner of the railing that he was leaning on. “Such nonsense should have stayed in the Milky Way.”

“Yeah, like that is a Human tradition anyways. Us Asari don’t even celebrate it. Why should we be tortured by it?”

“Because half of this team is Human, that’s why,” Liam said in passing, carrying glass orbs in a box. “Come on, have a little Christmas cheer. For Ryder’s sake, alright? It has been a rough year on her.”

“I know of a few good ways for her to get over her grief, you know. And it doesn’t involve all of this crap.”

Jaal walked away before he could get involved with whatever conversation those two were getting into. It was already crazy enough with all of the weird decorations going up. Now all of the other aliens were complaining about it. He didn’t want to cause another argument along side one that was already going on. Or one that seemed like it was going on.

As he was heading back up to the main floor, he ran into Flora and noticed that she was carrying colorful packages in her arms. “Ah, Ryder. I wouldn’t go in there if I were you. Drack and Peebee are arguing over something called…ah, what was it…Chrastmas…no, that wasn’t it. Chirmas.” He shook his head, trying to get the right word to come out. “It was a strange word that Drack said was a tradition your kind usually did back in the Milky Way.”

“Oh, Christmas,” Flora said as she shifted the packages over to one arm. “He is right, though. It is normally a Human tradition but Doctor T’Perro suggested that the crew celebrated it to help boost morale. Not sure if she meant the overall morale or the Humans morale.” She shrugged and smiled at Jaal. “How are you liking the decorations?”

“Liking the…I am not even sure what to make of it to be honest with you.”

“Oh, you don’t have anything like this to celebrate mid-winter or something of the sort?”

“Oh, we do. It is just something less…flashy than this. I will have to explain it to you in full detail when we have the time. And when the Kett aren’t always attacking us.” He paused for a few moments. “It seems like they are always on the move.”

“Yeah, but we are one step ahead of them right now. We know something that they don’t and if we can just use that to our advantage maybe we can get rid of them for good.”

Jaal nodded his head. “You’re right, Ryder. Now, you were saying something about the decorations?”

“Maybe after I put these presents under the tree first? They are getting a little heavy first.”

“Ah, right. Those…presents. Do you need a hand? It looks like you got a few too many.” Without waiting for a response, he took a few packages off of the top of the stack and followed her towards the tree. He stopped in front of it and gazed in awe. It seemed to reach the top of the ship and was shiny and bright with the orbs that Liam had been carrying. It seemed like it wasn’t enough because both Liam and Cora were placing more of the glass orbs all over the tree.

“Are you sure that is enough of those orbs? I don’t think that tree can hold any more,” Jaal said as he craned his head up to see the top of the tree as Cora used her Biotics to raise an orb up and around the tree to where he couldn’t see.

“This is just this side of the tree that you are seeing, Jaal. We haven’t even decorated the other side yet. That side is only half done.”

“The…other side?” Jaal walked around to the other side to see what Cora was talking about and stared in amazement at the orbs that were being placed on the half-bare tree. “Amazing,” he said as he picked up an orb from the box at Liam’s feet.

“Hey, hey, hey, be careful now. Those are fragile,” Liam said as he reached for the orb. “They are glass and came directly from the Milky way.”

“Relax, Liam. Jaal is only curious about Christmas is all,” Flora said as he took the orb from his hand and gave it back to Jaal. “This is an ornament. They are used to decorate the tree. And yes, Liam is right. They are fragile and can break very easily so be very careful.”

“Orna…ment?” Jaal said, curious of the new word that he just learned. “What purpose does it have?”

“Purpose? Umm…none I supposed. Just decoration like the wall hangings you have in your house or the museum artifacts that are in Aya. Well, that isn’t a good example since those did have a purpose but they don’t have one anymore since the Scourge happened.”

“Ah, interesting. So, you put this tree, the ornaments, and these decorations up for how long?”

“Well, typically only a few weeks out of the year but some people like to go a little wild and go a month or two out of the year.” Flora shrugged. “I don’t get those people. But whatever floats their boat I guess.”  
Jaal nodded his head and continued to watch as Liam and Cora put up more of the orbs on the tree. He didn’t quite understand this Christmas but if Flora was happy then that was all that mattered.  
\--------  
When it seemed like life had returned back to semi-normal, Jaal woke up to the crew being assembled in the meeting room. Confused, he followed them upstairs and sat down in his usual seat. He watched as the crew exchanged gifts. He didn’t know that he was supposed to get one for the other crewmates. He started to get up to leave when one was thrusted into his hands. He looked up to see Flora smiling down at him.

“I am sorry I didn’t tell you about the gift exchange, Jaal. It slipped my mind.”

“It’s alright, Ryder.” He looked down at the package and shook it a few times. “What is it?”

“Open it. You can tear the wrapping off and the gift is inside of the box.”

He timidly tore off the bright wrapping and opened the box to find a dark blue long-shawl-like fabric in the box.

“It is a scarf. You wrap it around your neck.” She mimicked the motion of wrapping something around her neck.

He wrapped it around his neck and adjusted it slightly. “It is nice, thank you Ryder. I will make sure you all get gifts soon.”

She smiled at him and went back to the rest of the crew for more gifts. He lightly touched the scarf. He still was puzzled at the whole Christmas concept but at least it wasn’t too bad.


End file.
